Suggestion: more options for the games.php page

[Radiant]

I agree that parody == comedy most of the time (specifically, a parody would be a 'comedy remake'), and that fantasy != scifi.

You seem to have left out 'horror', though.

I suggested "unique" because HOTU also uses that category for one-of-a-kind games. In the IF genre, Pick Up The Phone Booth And Die would be an example; most other examples are exotic crossovers. I don't quite like the term "experimental" because that kind of suggests the author didn't know what he was doing at the time. Also, MOTLPAA is definitely experimental but certainly not unique (I'd flag it RPG/non-adventure or something).

Given the prevalence of RPG threads, we may want an RPG category as a subset of non-adventure.

[MrColossal]

may I suggest Reality on the Norm since there are a LOT of games that would fall under that category?

[edmundito]

We could also do tagging instead, which what the kids are doing these days...

[Pumaman]

Ok, how about this as a final list:

Contemporary
Mystery
Fantasy
Science fiction
Historical
Comedy
Childrens
Remake/fan sequel

I've removed "parody",  "drama" (since it doesn't really mean anything in terms of gaming) and "Experimental". The reason I don't like "Unique" is that I can see lots of people labelling their games "unique" because they think it sounds cool or because "my game's not like any other". Is there a better term for what we're after?

may I suggest Reality on the Norm since there are a LOT of games that would fall under that category?

Well, RotN games aren't actually allowed on the Games page, they're covered by the blanket "Reality on the Norm" entry -- this was decided because we didn't want the AGS Games page to end up duplicating the RotN website's Games Page.

We could also do tagging instead, which what the kids are doing these days...

I thought we already decided that a fixed list was the preferable option?

[edmundito]

Sounds good to me. Don't forget that correctly it's either Children's or Children.   

Maybe also the name Remake/Fan Game instead... I don't know how one would categorize Night of the Hermit, for example... it's not a sequel nor a remake, but it does have some fan game tendencies. And my magnum opus, Ben Jordan: PWW.

As for tagging, it's just a suggestion. It could be to improve search results in the long run, but for categories I think it's fine if they're fixed. And it's not something that should be implemented right away...

The other category I don't see there is Horror. Unless you're counting it as mystery...

[scotch]

All those make sense to me except Contemporary.  What does that mean for an adventure game?

[Pumaman]

The problem is a way to categorize games set in the present day -- they're not Fantasy, Science Fiction or Historical, so what are they?

Something like Police Quest, or No Action Jackson ... without Contemporary, how would you categorize them?

[MrColossal]

Police Quest would be a fan remake and No Action Jackson would be a comedy.

But you probably ment as if someone made PQ in AGS, I'd say Pleurburgh [the closest I can think to PQ] would be a mystery...

[Ishmael]

Horror definitely. Where'd you put Lost in the Nightmare? And what about the game I started working on five hours ago?

[Radiant]

The reason I don't like "Unique" is that I can see lots of people labelling their games "unique" because they think it sounds cool or because "my game's not like any other". Is there a better term for what we're after?

Hm, good point, although theoretically that could be solved by moderating the entries a bit (since when you review, you already have an option to say the game is in the wrong category).

Instead, how about this... create a single forum thread for suggesting new categories (probably no need to sticky it) and at the games.php, add a link saying "if you really can't fit your game anywhere, go to /this thread/"